The recent earthquakes across Syria and Turkey caused at least 35,000 deaths and left a trail of destruction.
In Turkey, many construction experts are now asking why the country wasn’t better prepared …
Thanks to Pelin Pınar Giritlioğlu.
In Turkey, many construction experts are now asking why the country wasn’t better prepared …
Thanks to Pelin Pınar Giritlioğlu.
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00:00If it had been designed with urban functions,
00:04of course, the dose of this collapse would have been much less.
00:09There are very big earthquakes in Japan, more than seven.
00:12How do the structures survive here?
00:14When Turkey and Syria were hit with two devastating earthquakes,
00:17nearly 25,000 buildings collapsed across the region,
00:20according to the Turkish government.
00:22Many are now questioning why Turkey,
00:24a country prone to earthquakes, was not more prepared.
00:27Some experts are blaming the lack of regulation
00:29in Turkey's construction industry
00:31and how this may have exasperated the devastation
00:33caused by the earthquake.
00:35Of course, it was a huge earthquake.
00:37In fact, two huge earthquakes came one after the other
00:39in an unexpected way.
00:41But it could have been possible to prevent all of this
00:44on a large scale.
00:46Turkey sits on top of two fault lines.
00:48In 1999, after another devastating earthquake,
00:52new building regulations were passed.
00:54But construction experts now say
00:56these weren't properly enforced.
00:58The earthquake in 1999 was actually a breaking point here.
01:01Because some social agreements were made there.
01:05One of them was to prepare the cities for the earthquake.
01:09We, all the academics, the vocational schools,
01:12the civil society organizations,
01:13participated in these studies.
01:14I think it was very useful.
01:16A commission worked.
01:17Ten separate books came out of here.
01:19According to Dr. Girit Loğlu,
01:21builders and promoters are not the only ones at fault.
01:24She told me about İmarafı,
01:26which translates to construction amnesties.
01:28These laws essentially grant pardons
01:30to construction companies or individual owners
01:33whose buildings don't abide by certain building codes,
01:35protecting them from facing monetary or legal repercussions.
01:39The government has promoted these amnesties
01:41as a way to support the construction boom in the country,
01:44as well as to appeal to property owners.
01:46İmarafı was used as a tool of populism.
01:49Before the election period,
01:51a lot of amnesties were issued.
01:52There are a lot of İmarafı in our country.
01:55More than 20, almost 25.
01:58All of this has already caused
01:59the cities to become extremely unhealthy.
02:04A 2018 report from the Turkish Environment
02:06and Urbanization Ministry,
02:08quoted by the BBC,
02:09showed that over half of all buildings in Turkey
02:12have been built in violation of legal regulations.
02:15Aside from the devastating impact on buildings,
02:17wider transport infrastructure
02:19was also widely affected by the earthquake.
02:21In the hard-hit Hatay province,
02:23the only airport of the region suffered extensive damage.
02:26But if you're building an airport on Sisfayet,
02:29yes, you can't get there.
02:31If you're building impassable roads,
02:33yes, you can't get there.
02:34If you don't have a disaster evacuation route in the city,
02:37yes, you can't get there.
02:39If you don't have hospitals,
02:41you can't raise the injured.
02:43But it's not the planners who make these decisions.
02:46The problem is here.
02:46It's the politicians who make these decisions.
02:48In response to mounting criticism,
02:50Turkish officials announced that they issued
02:52113 arrest warrants in relation to the construction
02:56of the buildings that collapsed during the earthquakes.
03:26If you choose to continue the system
03:28based on the same amount of capital,
03:31you will reach today's result.